 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 287, 26 January 2009 |
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Welcome to the fourth DistroWatch Weekly for 2009 and happy New Year of the Ox! In this issue we share some highlights from Linux.conf.au, one of the world's most popular open source conferences. In the news, the ext4 file system finds its way into Ubuntu and becomes the default for Fedora 11, Slackware Linux prepares for KDE 4.2, server distribution ClarkConnect releases feature list for its upcoming version 5.0, and two well-known ex-Mandriva developers join Red Hat, Inc. Also in this issue, links to two interviews with the developers of Fedora and Ubuntu, and an update on DistroWatch's package management cheatsheet. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (15MB) and MP3 (13MB) formats (many thanks to Russ Wenner)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story |
Linux.conf.au 2009
Introduction
Ten years ago, Linux kernel hacker Rusty Russell put his credit card on the line and hosted the first Conference of Australian Linux Users (CALU). Now known as Linux.conf.au (LCA), the conference draws many big names from the cold winter of the northern hemisphere down to a sunny, shiny city in the South. For the past week, your DistroWatch Weekly editor has been attending the conference down in Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania. The logo for LCA this year (pictured on the left) is a Tasmanian Devil, pretending to be a penguin. His name is 'Tuz'.
University of Tasmania, site of LCA 2009
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The event runs for 6 days, with the first two holding 'mini-conferences' (known as 'miniconfs') and the last is reserved as 'Open Day', a time when the conference is open to the wider community.
Topics
LCA draws many big names from the open source world, including the founder of Linux himself, Linus Torvalds. Papers are submitted in advance and selected by the LCA committee. As such, the conference covers a very broad range of topics including coding, distributions, databases, security, networking, project management, legal issues and many more.
As a part of the miniconfs, power management guru and Red Hat employee Matthew Garrett gave a talk entitled "How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love ACPI". In this talk, Garrett discussed the intricacies of ACPI and how the system is supposed to work. It's a very complicated process, requiring an interpreter inside the kernel to execute ACPI commands which makes it tricky for Linux to correctly perform tasks such as suspend and resume. Later in the week he also gave a presentation on "Power Management That Works", discussing the work he is bringing to the Linux community to improve this area. "Linux supports an increasingly broad range of power management techniques, but configuring them is still beyond the capabilities of most. Why aren't distributions handling this? What needs to be done to ensure a "Just works" experience for power management?", reads the synopsis. Garrett wants to move from a time-triggered power saving to a system that reflects the working habits of the user. He suggests that there is no point turning off the screen to save power because the mouse has not moved, while at the same time the user is in the middle of watching a movie. As with Garrett's previous work, we should see some benefits of his work filtering into Linux soon.
In another talk entitled "Introducing The Re-Built Linux Desktop", X Window System expert Keith Packard discussed the changes to X.Org over the past year. Keith presented the "development history and current architecture of the core of the Linux desktop, from the low-level device drivers, through the kernel management of GPU execution and memory objects." He cited the release of Direct Rendering Infrastructure 2 (DRI2) and the inclusion of the new memory manager, Graphics Execution Manager (GEM), in the kernel as two major achievements. With these improvements, Linux finally has support for 3D on multiple desktops. In a demo at the end, Keith showed glxgears running correctly in a window while using a Compiz accelerated desktop, a first for the open drivers. There is still some work to do, however, such as fixing tearing problems and it remains to be seen as to whether GEM can support discrete graphics instead of just integrated. We have already seen improvements with the Intel video driver and we can expect better graphics performance in the future with this new system.
Keith Packard on improvements to the X Window System
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One of the most exciting new developments came from Jeff Arnold who gave a presentation on Ksplice. Currently, users are required to reboot their system after applying updates to the Linux kernel which is an issue, particularly on servers where uptime is important. This new project enables updates be applied in real time: "With Ksplice, all Linux security updates (and many other updates) can be applied seamlessly, without a reboot." The team tested all significant patches for the kernel from 2005 until mid 2008 and proved that 88% were able to be patched in real time without any change in code. By slightly modifying the remaining patches, Ksplice was able to apply 100% of kernel updates without rebooting! After explaining how this process works, he used Ksplice to patch the running kernel and modify his up time. Arnold also presented an Ubuntu desktop running a graphical kernel update manager, which seamlessly downloaded and applied several kernel updates. This is a great project with a lot of potential for the Linux desktop.
There were many other presentations given at LCA, including one by Jonathon Oxer called "Geek My Ride", where he talked about retrofitting his Mazda RX-8 with a Linux-based computer system. This computer provides "full-time Internet connectivity; in-car video conferencing; remote vehicle management, diagnostics, and reporting; touchscreen-driven MythTV-based in-car entertainment; WiFi and 3G integration with the owner's home automation system; remote start" and more.
Attendees also got the chance to mingle with many famous faces from the open source world and ask a panel of kernel hackers about working on Linux.
Attendees at LCA 2009
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Fund raising
Every year at LCA the organisers arrange an auction to help a good cause and this year was no exception. Being held in Tasmania, this year money was raised to help the Tasmanian Devil, which is suffering from a fatal contagious disease that causes tumours to grow on its face and body. At the conference's 'Penguin Dinner', HP's head Linux guru and long-time Debian developer Bdale Garbee auctioned off a print of the award-winning photograph 'Waterfall' taken by his wife, Karen. After stalling at AU$2,500, a bidder offered AU$5,000 for the print if Bdale would shave his beard of 27 years. Naturally he found this far too cheap, but vowed that should the bidding reach AU$25,000 he would get Linus himself to shave his chin bare. By the end of the bidding, the total amount of money raised reached around AU$40,000. During Lunch on the following day, the organisers arranged to have Linus shave Bdale's face. Andrew Bennett even created a flash game where you can shave Bdale, too.
Linus shaves Bdale's beard of 27 years
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Photo courtesy of John Dalton
As a part of the very complicated bidding process, Linus also offered to swap Tux for the Tuz icon for one major release of the Linux kernel. The next morning Rusty submitted a patch to Linus which did just that.
Tuz to replace Tux for next kernel release
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LCA 2010
Next year will see the conference held in Wellington, New Zealand. It will be the second time that the conference has been held outside of Australia, with the first being Dunedin, New Zealand in 2005. "This is a hugely popular gathering of the world's leading free and open source experts, and the bids to host the next linux.conf.au are always really strong. This year was no exception," says Linux Australia President Stewart Smith. If you've never been to a LCA conference before, start saving your pennies! It's really worthwhile.
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| Miscellaneous News |
Ubuntu and Fedora adopt ext4, Slackware prepares for KDE 4.2, Mandriva developers move to Red Hat, ClarkConnect reveals new features
The release of Linux kernel version 2.6.28 saw the fourth generation of the extended file system (ext4) finally marked as 'stable'. Also introduced, but in the form of experimental software, was the new file system Btrfs ('Butter FS' or 'B-tree FS'). Developed by Oracle Corporation, Btrfs is seen as a competitor to the ZFS file system from Sun Microsystems which remains incompatible with Linux due to its license. The Fedora Project has announced that ext4 will become the default file system for the upcoming 11 release, replacing the ext3 file system which will remain available. The project has also included support for Btrfs in the development version of Anaconda (Red Hat's installer), which is enabled by passing the kernel option 'i-can't-believe-it's-not-btr' when booting the installation media.
Still on the subject of Fedora, here is a nice interview with Fedora Project Engineering Manager Tom "Spot" Callaway published by Norwegian technology site hardware.no. Tom introduces Fedora and discusses its place in the open source community as well as its goals. He says: "Fedora is more than just a Linux distribution, Fedora is a community of contributors, users, and projects. This community was built around the idea of collaboration between Red Hat and volunteer contributors, with the goal of being the leader in free software innovation." He also discusses the planned features for the upcoming 11 release, upgrading and their 6-month release cycle, as well as 'competing' with other operating systems and more.
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The upcoming 9.04 release of Ubuntu, dubbed Jaunty Jackalope, will also be built on version 2.6.28 of the Linux kernel and, starting with the recent Alpha 3 release, it also includes support for ext4. The new file system is available by selecting it from a list during the partitioning step of the installation process. Unlike Fedora, however, (which has included ext4 development since version 9) Jaunty will not see the move to ext4 as the default file system. This is planned for the following release, 9.10. In other news, DeviceGuru has an article on how to enable gOS gadgets "Mozilla Prism, Google Gadgets, and a Wbar animated application-launch icon dock" on the main GNOME desktop. gOS is based on Ubuntu and focuses on tight integration of various Google products and services.
Still on the subject of Ubuntu, oneOpenSource, an Italian open source community web site, has interviewed Daniel Holbach, an Ubuntu developer. Holbach discusses working for Canonical, the Ubuntu community, the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 release and the distribution's relationship with Debian GNU/Linux. On the last topic Holbach says: "Lots of patches are sent to Debian every week and we have lots of teams that are actively working together and coordinating development together." When asked what makes Ubuntu so popular, he replies "That's obvious: its fantastic community."
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The Slackware Linux ChangeLog shows Patrick Volkerding has merged KDE 4.2rc1 into the testing branch, in preparation for the desktop's next stable release. "Thanks very much to Eric Hameleers for all of the hard work getting this version of KDE ready for /testing so that Slackware -current will be ready when KDE 4.2 is released!", he writes. These packages will work with the current Slackware version 12.2, but Volkerding encourages users to get them now. He warns that "Library changes in -current may occur which could make it more difficult to use these KDE packages with Slackware 12.2 in the future." This will be the first 4.x release of KDE supported in the stable tree by the oldest surviving Linux distribution.
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Reports are surfacing that Red Hat's market capitalisation is on the rise and about to surpass that of Sun Microsystems for the first time. While other open source companies may be cutting back on staff and expenses, Red Hat is continuing to expand. Adam Williamson, who until December 2008 was the Mandriva community manager and maintainer, has recently announced he is moving to Red Hat. His new role will be as a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer and will work on a "new community QA [Quality Assurance] system they're developing." Vincent Danen, also an ex-Mandriva employee having worked there for nine years, will begin his new role at Red Hat as a "Senior Software Engineer, but technically as a member of the Red Hat Security Response Team."
* * * * *
ClarkConnect is a CentOS-based distribution which combines a broadband gateway with an easy-to-use server and is popular with local networks. The upcoming version 5.0 is scheduled for release on 1st April this year and testing will soon go public with the first alpha release. As such, the website has published a feature overview of the expected improvements. Among the list are features such as an update of the core CentOS environment, complete LDAP integration, greater Samba support including roaming profiles, the ability to quarantine mail and the introduction of protocol filtering.
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| Released Last Week |
Granular Linux 1.0
Anurag Bhandari has announced the release of Granular Linux 1.0, a PCLinuxOS-based desktop distribution: "After a long wait, Granular Linux 1.0 is finally out. This release brings with it solid stability, out-of-the-box usefulness, great multimedia experience, support for running Windows software, and much more in the size of a CD (live CD). Features: major packages include Linux kernel 2.6.26.8, KDE 3.5.10, Enlightenment 0.16.999, Firefox 3.0.4, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, KOffice 1.6.3, Compiz Fusion 0.7.6, GIMP 2.6.3 and Wine 1.0.1; our own new repository; out-of-the-box support for audio and video files (xine and MPlayer); multimedia plugins for Firefox are now pre-installed; support for running Windows applications, and games; support for multimedia keyboards and the extra laptop keys; ATI and NVIDIA drivers included...." See the full release announcement and release notes for more details.
Granular Linux 1.0 - a desktop distribution based on PCLinuxOS
(full image size: 301kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3
Red Hat, Inc. has announced the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.3, the latest update to the RHEL 5 series: "Red Hat, Inc. today announced the global availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, featuring the latest open source, commercial-strength technology innovations. In the third update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, customers will receive a wide range of enhancements, including significantly increased virtualization scalability, expanded hardware platform support and incorporation of OpenJDK Java technologies. Customers with a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription will receive the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 update, which is available for immediate download from Red Hat Network." Read the formal press release and the detailed release notes for more information.
Sabayon Linux 4 "LiteMCE"
Fabio Erculiani has announced the release of Sabayon Linux 4 "LiteMCE" edition, a multimedia-oriented distribution with GNOME as its main desktop: "On the behalf of the Sabayon Linux team, I am happy to announce the immediate availability of Sabayon Linux 4 'LiteMCE'. Features: based on Sabayon Linux 4; halved hard disk footprint, less than 2 GB DVD image; GNOME 2.24.2 as default desktop environment; OpenOffice.org 3.0; multimedia applications (audio, video, DVD ripping, file sharing); media center mode, thanks to XBMC; Entropy package manager 0.24.8; stable Linux kernel 2.6.27.10; ext4, NTFS, Aufs and Unionfs support; HAL-based GPU and input devices detection; supporting AMD Catalyst drivers 8.11, open source RadeonHD and NVIDIA drivers; one-click 3D desktop effects...." Read the release announcement and release notes for all the glory details.
Ubuntu 8.04.2
An updated set of CD and DVD images of Ubuntu 8.04, a distribution with long-term security support (5 years on servers, 3 years on desktops), was released today: "The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 8.04.2 LTS, the second maintenance update to Ubuntu's 8.04 LTS release. This release includes updated server, desktop, and alternate installation CDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures. In all, over 200 updates have been integrated, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS." Read the release announcement and summary of changes for a detailed list of all updates.
Gentoox 7.0 "Home", 5.0 "Pro"
Thomas Pedley has announced new versions of Gentoox, a Gentoo-based distribution for the Xbox: "It has been about 21 months, but here they are... the 'You're still doing this?!' releases. I don't really know if there's any demand for Gentoox anymore, but I figured I'd put these out there just in case people do still use it. The major features are: fully synchronised software (both with Magic and Portage as of a few days ago); ditched RAR file format in favour of TBZ (file sizes are slightly bigger, but it's free!); nifty installer progress bar; updated BusyBox in all initrds; ditched KDE, only Xfce is available now (KDE was way too bloated); upgraded to latest 2.4 series kernel; switched Home edition to use -Os due to CPU's tiny cache (Pro still uses -O2 as this will give better number-crunching performance)...." Read the full release announcement for further details.
Parted Magic 3.5
Patrick Verner has announced the release of Parted Magic 3.5, a minimalist live CD featuring GParted and other hard disk management utilities: "Parted Magic 3.5. This release of Parted Magic includes many new features and updated programs. The first thing you might notice is the dramatic increase in size. We are now using a Squashfs image instead of a 7zip archive. This once again allows for a 'live' option for older computers. Parted Magic doesn't use any additional RAM with the default boot option, the compression was just decreased. With the Linux 2.6.28 kernel comes the first stable ext4 file system release. We are using a highly tested SVN version of GParted to give you full control of your ext4 partitions. This includes all features for ext file systems found in previous releases. Jason Vasquez has vastly improved support of wireless devices. We hope you have a better experience with your wireless networking." Here is the full release announcement.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Update on package management cheatsheet
The package management cheatsheet presented in DistroWatch Weekly a few weeks ago has now been given its own page - linked from the main menu. It replaces the Reviews and Articles page which has become rather stale in recent years as we moved most of this type of content into DistroWatch Weekly. The package management cheatsheet currently lists most package management systems found in today's Linux distributions and FreeBSD, but the page is still open to additions, suggestions and corrections, so don't hesitate to contact us if you spot any error or if you want us to include other package management systems.
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
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DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 2 February 2009.
Chris Smart
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Full list of all issues |
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DebXPde
DebXPde was a Debian-based live CD featuring the LXDE desktop environment and a trimmed-down collection of lightweight applications for everyday tasks.
Status: Discontinued
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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